Time-Saving Tips: 10 Hacks to boost Productivity

TOP 1O WAYS TO PUT YOUR IPHONE TO WORK

Our iPhones and iPads are powerful productivity tools. These 10 tips will help you harness your device's power by teaching you how to get the most out of its Mail, Notes, Calendar, and Reminders apps. Prioritize Emails from Specific Contacts

Use Apple Mail's VIP feature to group messages from specific contacts into a folder and receive notifications when they email you. In the Mailboxes view of the Mail app, tap Edit and select VIP, then tap Done. Tap the info icon next to the new VIP mailbox and tap Add VIP to designate contacts as VIPs. Now you can find all your important emails in one place. Next, tap VIP Alerts to enable VIP notifications. Turn off other Mail notifications in Settings > Notifications > Mail so you only get notifications for VIP emails.

Email Attachments Like a Pro

First, make sure your files are saved in Photos or iCloud Drive. Then, when composing an email, tap the body of the email and choose Insert Photo or Video or Add Attachment. Next, select the file you want to attach from the Photos app or iCloud Drive. Attachments from other apps must be shared to Mail from within those apps. For example, to email a PDF file from iBooks, open the PDF, tap the share icon, and select email.

Finish an Email Later

Save an email as a draft by tapping Cancel in the upper right corner and selecting Save Draft. You can find it later in your Drafts folder. If you want to close the email temporarily while you refer to another email, just press on the email title and swipe the draft down out of the way. Only the title will be visible at the bottom of the page. When you're ready to return to it, just tap the title again.

Make Reminders Extra Helpful

Setting reminders based on time or location makes them even more useful. After you enter a reminder, tap the info icon to set specifics. To set a day and time for your reminder, turn on "Remind me on a day" then tap on Alarm. To set a location-based reminder, turn on "Remind me at a location" and either tap on your current location or type in a location. Then choose to be reminded when you arrive at or you leave that location.

Quickly Reschedule Events

In the Calendar app, press and hold on the event until it becomes opaque in color and then drag the event up or down to a new time or left or right to a different day. You can also place your finger on one of the small circles on the top or bottom and drag to adjust the event's start or end time. Using Siri to edit Calendar events is even faster. Just say something like, “reschedule my haircut from Tuesday at 2 p.m. to Wednesday at 3.”

Add Events to Your Calendar from the Mail App

There's a feature in Settings that allows for Events Found in Mail to automatically be added to your Calendar app. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars and toggle Events Found in Mail on, if it's not already. Now when you receive an email with an event in it, a notification will appear at the top of the email. Tap Add to create the event in your Calendar app. Tap Add again to save the event.